Talk:The Time of My Life/@comment-3122348-20130419104056
Okay, so I bet literally ''NO ONE ''is going to believe this since you all think I'm ridiculously intelligent when I'm honestly not. To compact this mini vent session, lets just say that I have been feeling the pressures of Year 11 and I'm not even halfway through the school year here. By going to a selective entry school, you'd think that this is what's unfortunately guaranteed - a competitive academic environment where fellow students come at each other's necks to see who comes out on top. Instead of being that person who's gritty enough to fight and try and be the top student, I feel like I've given up and I'm literally perceived as the dumb one in the entire year level. I don't know why though. Like, I'm not depressed or suffering from any mental illness; in fact, I'm far from depressed, I've actually been ecstatic with my academic progress so far this year. Part of me however is just reluctant to work to the best of my ability, even if I am already 'smart' since I go to a selective entry school. I think this has all stemmed from myself missing out on the opportunity to be selected for studying a first year university-level course of my choice. My school gives students who have averaged above 95% in all their subjects to be able to undertake this opportunity however I missed out by a couple percent in two subjects. My parents took the whole thing fine - they were happy I averaged above 90% in all my subjects. Anyone reading this must be thinking I'm insane for kicking myself when I have achieved literally an 'A' for each subject that I did but this is my problem. I feel like having succumbed to the pressure for getting the 'A+' is what's making me a bad student. I set my limit too high last year in hopes of being one of the lucky people to be selected to study at a university level but everything fell apart at the last hurdle. I felt like a complete failure in my eyes and I feel like I let everybody else down even though they appeared happy for my achievements regardless of what happened. I know I shouldn't be basing my academic ventures off what other people want me to do but it's hard not to. If I get a perfect score (99.95) at the end of Year 12 and end up part taking in say a university course that requires only an 92 upon entry, people are going to criticise me. They'll ask me why I'm not entering a scholar's program, why I'm not doing a bachelor of surgery, medicine, dentistry, law etc. I'm going to be scrutinised by a bunch of people because I basically robbed them of an opportunity to do something they love. It's so unfair that people who have high ambitions of becoming a doctor or a lawyer receive low marks which ultimately prohibit them from following that career path. Whether or not I want to make the use of my final score and utilise it to its full potential should be up to me and only me but I can't help but feel the weight of pressure on me to succeed. AND I'M NOT EVEN IN YEAR 12 YET, LET ALONE GRADUATED. VENT OVER. Thanks for reading if you even bothered to. Thank you even more for being a kind soul and replying if you do but it's not mandatory to do so.